different between cold vs stiff

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k??ld/, /k??ld/
• (General American) enPR: k?ld, IPA^(key): /ko?ld/
• Homophone: coaled
• Rhymes: -??ld

Etymology 1

From Middle English cold, from Old English, specifically Anglian cald. The West Saxon form, ?eald (“cold”), survived as early Middle English cheald, cheld, or chald. Both descended from Proto-West Germanic *kald, from Proto-Germanic *kaldaz, a participle form of *kalan? (“to be cold”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”).

Adjective

cold (comparative colder, superlative coldest)

1. (of a thing) Having a low temperature.
2. (of the weather) Causing the air to be cold.

3. (of a person or animal) Feeling the sensation of coldness, especially to the point of discomfort.

4. Unfriendly, emotionally distant or unfeeling.
   • 2011 April 23, Doctor Who, series 6, episode 1, The Impossible Astronaut:

     RIVER SONG (upon seeing the still-living DOCTOR, moments after he made her and two other friends watch what they thought was his death): This is cold. Even by your standards, this is cold.
5. Dispassionate, not prejudiced or partisan, impartial.

6. Completely unprepared; without introduction.

7. Unconscious or deeply asleep; deprived of the metaphorical heat associated with life or consciousness.

8. (usually with "have" or "know" transitively) Perfectly, exactly, completely; by heart.

9. (usually with "have" transitively) Cornered, done for.
10. (obsolete) Not pungent or acrid.

    • cold plants

11. (obsolete) Unexciting; dull; uninteresting.
    • 1641, Ben Jonson, Discoveries Made upon Men and Matter

      What a deal of cold business doth a man misspend the better part of life in!

    • The jest grows cold […] when it comes on in a second scene.

12. Affecting the sense of smell (as of hunting dogs) only feebly; having lost its odour.

13. (obsolete) Not sensitive; not acute.
14. Distant; said, in the game of hunting for some object, of a seeker remote from the thing concealed. Compare warm and hot.

15. (painting) Having a bluish effect; not warm in colour.
16. (databases) Rarely used or accessed, and thus able to be relegated to slower storage.
17. (informal) Without compassion; heartless; ruthless

    I can't believe she said that...that was cold!

18. (informal) Not radioactive. [from the 20^thc.]
    • 1953, Philip K. Dick, "That's right," Jackson said. "The Old Man will be pleased to welcome you." There was eagerness in his reedy voice. "What do you say? We'll take care of you. Feed you, bring you cold plants and animals. For a week maybe?"”, in Planet for Transients, a short story published in Fantastic Universe magazine: Oct-Nov 1953. Page 64

Synonyms

• (of a thing, having a low temperature): chilled, chilly, freezing, frigid, glacial, icy, cool
• (of the weather): (UK, slang) brass monkeys, nippy, parky, taters
• (of a person or animal):
• (unfriendly): aloof, distant, hostile, standoffish, unfriendly, unwelcoming
• (unprepared): unprepared, unready
• See also Thesaurus:cold

Antonyms

• (having a low temperature): baking, boiling, heated, hot, scorching, searing, torrid, warm
• (of the weather): hot (See the corresponding synonyms of hot.)
• (of a person or animal): hot (See the corresponding synonyms of hot.)
• (unfriendly): amiable, friendly, welcoming
• (unprepared): prepared, primed, ready
• (not radioactive): hot, radioactive

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English cold, colde, from Old English cald, ?eald (“cold, coldness”), from Proto-Germanic *kald? (“coldness”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”).

Noun

cold (plural colds)

1. A condition of low temperature.

2. (with 'the', figuratively) A harsh place; a place of abandonment.

   The former politician was left out in the cold after his friends deserted him.

3. (medicine) A common, usually harmless, viral illness, usually with congestion of the nasal passages and sometimes fever.

4. (slang) rheum, sleepy dust
   • 1994, Notorious B.I.G., Warning

     Who the fuck is this, pagin' me at 5:46 in the morning? / crack of dawn and now I'm yawnin' / wipe the cold out my eye, see who's this pagin' me and why

   • 1996, Ghostface Killah, All That I Got Is You

     But I remember this, moms would lick her finger tips / to wipe the cold out my eye before school with her spit

Synonyms

• (low temperature): coldness
• (illness): common cold, coryza, head cold, pose

Derived terms

Coordinate terms

• freeze, frost

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English colde, from Old English calde, ?ealde (“coldly”), from the adjective (see above).

Adverb

cold (comparative more cold, superlative most cold)

1. While at low temperature.

   The steel was processed cold.

2. Without preparation.

   The speaker went in cold and floundered for a topic.

3. With finality.

   I knocked him out cold.

4. (slang, informal, dated) In a cold, frank, or realistically honest manner.
   • 1986, Run-DMC, Peter Piper.

     Now Little Bo Peep cold lost her sheep / And Rip van Winkle fell the hell asleep

References

See also

• cool
• fresh
• lukewarm
• tepid

Anagrams

• clod, loc'd

Middle English

Alternative forms

• cald, cheld, cheald, chald

Etymology

From Old English cald, an Anglian form of ?eald.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??ld/
• (from the form ?eald) IPA^(key): /t???ld/

Adjective

cold (plural and weak singular colde, comparative colder, superlative *coldest)

1. (temperature) cold, cool
2. (weather) cold, cool
3. (locations) having a tendency to be cold
4. cold-feeling, cold when touched, cooled, chilly
5. lifeless, having the pallor of death
6. cold-hearted, indifferent, insensitive
7. distressed, sorrowful, worried
8. (alchemy, medicine) Considered to be alchemically cold

Descendants

• English: cold
• Scots: cald, cauld
• Yola: cole, khoal

References

• “c?ld, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-26.

Noun

cold

1. cold, coldness
2. The feeling of coldness or chill
3. Lack of feelings or emotion
4. (alchemy, medicine) Alchemical coldness

Descendants

• English: cold
• Scots: cald, cauld

References

• “c?ld, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-26.

English

Etymology

From Middle English stiff, stiffe, stif, from Old English st?f, from Proto-Germanic *st?faz (compare West Frisian stiif,Dutch stijf, Norwegian Bokmål stiv, German steif), from Proto-Indo-European *steypós (compare Latin st?pes, st?p?, from which English stevedore).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Adjective

stiff (comparative stiffer, superlative stiffest)

1. (of an object) Rigid; hard to bend; inflexible.

   • “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; […]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.

2. (figuratively, of policies and rules and their application and enforcement) Inflexible; rigid.
3. (of a person) Formal in behavior; unrelaxed.
4. (colloquial) Harsh, severe.
5. (of muscles or parts of the body) Painful as a result of excessive or unaccustomed exercise.

6. Potent.

7. Dead, deceased.
8. (of a penis) Erect.
9. (cooking, of whipping cream or egg whites) Beaten until so aerated that they stand up straight on their own.

   beat the egg whites until they are stiff

10. (mathematics) Of an equation: for which certain numerical solving methods are numerically unstable, unless the step size is taken to be extremely small.
11. (nautical) Keeping upright.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:stiff.

Derived terms

• bored stiff, scared stiff
• stiff-lipped, stiff upper lip
• stiffy

Translations

Noun

stiff (countable and uncountable, plural stiffs)

1. (slang) An average person, usually male, of no particular distinction, skill, or education, often a working stiff or lucky stiff.

   A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember was published in 2003.

2. (slang) A person who is deceived, as a mark or pigeon in a swindle.

   She convinced the stiff to go to her hotel room, where her henchman was waiting to rob him.

3. (slang) A cadaver; a dead person.
4. (slang) A flop; a commercial failure.
   • 1994, Andy Dougan, The actors' director: Richard Attenborough behind the camera (page 63)

     If the movie was a stiff it wasn't any of their specific faults. They were all in it together and they were jobbed in and jobbed out for two weeks and gone and they got a pile of money for their efforts.

   • 2016, Ralph J. Gleason, Toby Gleason, Music in the Air: The Selected Writings of Ralph J. Gleason

     They never did sell any records. I don't mean they didn't sell 100,000. I mean they didn't sell 5000. Total. National. Coast-to-coast. The record was a stiff.

5. (US, slang) A person who leaves (especially a restaurant) without paying the bill.
6. (US, slang, by extension) A customer who does not leave a tip.
7. (blackjack) Any hard hand where it is possible to exceed 21 by drawing an additional card.
8. (finance, slang) Negotiable instruments, possibly forged.
9. (prison slang) A note or letter surreptitiously sent by an inmate.

References

• (prison slang: a note or letter): 2015, Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of the Underworld: British and American (page 688); 2015, Noel 'Razor' Smith, The Criminal Alphabet: An A-Z of Prison Slang

See also

• bindlestiff
• See also Thesaurus:corpse, Thesaurus:body

Translations

Derived terms

• do a bit of stiff
• working stiff

Verb

stiff (third-person singular simple present stiffs, present participle stiffing, simple past and past participle stiffed)

1. To fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.

   Realizing he had forgotten his wallet, he stiffed the taxi driver when the cab stopped for a red light.

   • 1946, William Foote Whyte, Industry and Society, page 129

     We asked one girl to explain how she felt when she was "stiffed." She said, You think of all the work you've done and how you've tried to please [them…].

2. to cheat someone
   • 1992, Stephen Birmingham, Shades of Fortune, page 451

     You see, poor Nonie really was stiffed by Adolph in his will. He really stiffed her, Rose, and I really wanted to right that wrong.

3. to tip ungenerously
   • 2007, Mary Higgins Clark, I Heard That Song Before, page 154

     Then he stiffed the waiter with a cheap tip.

Translations

Anagrams

• TIFFs, tiffs

Middle English

Adjective

stiff

1. Alternative form of stif

Adverb

stiff

1. Alternative form of stif